If you would like to donate to the floral adornment of our sanctuary for Easter, please fill out a donation slip (found at the back of the church – please print clearly – and place it in the offering today or bring it to the church office. $20.00 suggested donation. Memorials and thanksgivings will be noted in Easter bulletins if received by Monday, March 26, 2018.

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Begin Holy Week by making Palm Crosses or decorating the Church with Ferns!

On Saturday, March 24th meet in the library at 10:30 and help the altar guild prepare the palm fronds for Palm Sunday. We will also make palm crosses. Learn how to make them, or teach others your special way. Instructions will be provided.

Or, join Susan Britton arranging ferns along the side windows of the church. Meet her in the church at 10:30 and help beautify the sanctuary for the solemn Holy Week services.

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For the Lenten season, the All Saints’ Outreach Commission offers you a Lenten Mite Box.

Please take a Lenten Mite Box, fill and return it on Easter Sunday. Please donate with your thanks and gratitude. Proceeds go half to Haiti and half to the ERD, (Episcopal Relief and Development.)

In addition, please bring packaged underwear and sox…men’s and women’s…white and colored, which we will collect for the needy on Palm Sunday. Please place in the tote at the back of the church. Thanks! -Hans Lehmann

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Wisdom Day, Saturday, March 17, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Please join us for a contemplative morning of Benedictine prayer, lectio divina, and selfless service through silent work together. At noon we break for a brown bag lunch and conversation.

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Healing Touch Clinic

March 24, 9-12:30 p.m., Grant Hall. All Saints’ is hosting a Healing Touch Clinic for all parishioners, their families and friends. Elizabeth Blackman, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner and Coordinator of the Stanford Cancer Supportive Care Healing Partners Program is coordinating the clinic. She and several providers will be offering free 30-minute sessions. To schedule your 30-minute session, contact Elizabeth at 831-250-8795 and leave your name, phone number, and time you would like to schedule.

Healing Touch works with your energy field to support your natural ability to heal, is safe for all ages and works in harmony with and is complementary to standard medical care.

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Have you contacted your Gratitude Neighbor this week?

A YEAR OF GRATITUDE

At our Annual Meeting, we declared the year 2018 to be a YEAR of GRATITUDE.

On Ash Wednesday we will begin our Lenten Series, “Forty Days of Gratitude,” and from this initial intention we will find ways to practice gratitude in our lives and in our faith community.

The anthropologist Angeles Arrien says that gratitude crosses all cultural customs and serves to unite us, “When people in great numbers choose to practice, integrate, and embody gratitude, the cumulative force that is generated can help create this kind of world we all hope for and desire, for ourselves and for future generations.”

If we adapted this quote for All Saints’ it might read as follows:

“When the MEMBERS OF A PARISH in great numbers choose to practice, integrate, and embody GRATITUDE, the cumulative force that is generated can help create the kind of CHURCH we all hope for and desire, for ourselves and for future generations.”

We bolstered our intention to practice gratitude in our community by assigning a Gratitude Neighbor to each person. If you were not at the Annual Meeting it’s not too late to get a Gratitude Neighbor. Please let Rev. Amber know if you would like to participate.

Here’s how it works:

1) Receive the name of your Gratitude Neighbor

2) Contact your Gratitude Neighbor once a week to share a gratitude about something at All Saints’ (an event; something that touched you in worship; the flowers; a painting; someone’s kindness) or something you appreciate about the person (the Gratitude Neighbor). It only needs to be one thing; one statement of gratitude.

3) Sometimes we may need to reflect to discover what we are grateful for and sometimes it may feel more spontaneous.

4) You may contact your gratitude neighbor by e-mail, phone, text, or snail mail depending on the person’s preferred form of contact. The person receiving the gratitude does not have to respond unless they want to. The purpose is simply to pass on what you have received in gratitude.

5) We will practice this exercise until April 22nd at the Bishop’s Visitation, our next congregational gathering.

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FORTY DAYS OF GRATITUDE LENTEN SERIES

We are never more than one grateful thought away from peace of heart. -Br. David Steindl-Rast

It is said that it takes at least thirty days to create a new neuropathway to change our habitual way of approaching and receiving the events of life and every day practice to achieve gratefulness. We often don’t realize how we allow our negative thoughts and feelings to dominate our lives thus cutting us off from the joy of living. You are invited to form a new pathway this Lent as we journey through The Art and Science of Grateful Living with the teachings of Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk who founded the Network for Grateful Living. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all took on this practice for Lent? This series, with soup suppers, continues Wednesday evenings during Lent at 6 p.m. in Seccombe Hall.

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Termites

In late April, the church, office, and Grant Hall and classroom buildings will be tented and fumigated to eliminate termites. We have raised $16,325 toward paying for this cost of $22,000. You may join in maintaining our sacred space by placing a check in the Sunday collection plate, or mailing your donation to the church office (PO Box 1296, Carmel, CA 93921). Please indicate “Termites” on the memo line of your check.

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The 2018 Altar Flower Calendar

A huge THANK YOU to all of you who generously donated Altar Flowers this past year. Your contributions added to the beauty of our sanctuary. The 2018 Calendar is now posted in the back of the church. You are invited to select a date to contribute flowers to honor or memorialize a special event or loved one. We ask for a minimum donation of $65 which is the cost of the flowers. Do not worry if someone has already signed up for that special week; more than one person may sign up. Mila will contact you in advance to see how you would like your dedication to read in the service bulletin. If you have not been contacted by the Sunday before your chosen date, please contact Mila directly. You may also contact her with any questions. Please note: there are no weekly flower dedications during the Lenten season.

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Noon time prayer and conversation with Rev. Amber – Wednesdays in the Chapel will not meet during Lent

Rev. Amber will resume hosting a noon day prayer followed by a brown bag lunch each Wednesday in the Chapel after Easter. This is an ideal time for everyone to get to know each other a little better and to talk to Rev. Amber on an informal basis.

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All Saints’ Book Group

The All Saints’ Book Group meets in the Church Library on the second Tuesday of each month. We enjoy a light dinner at 6:00 p.m. and then begin our discussion at 6:30. Please bring something to add to the salad or a goodie to share. Hence, the next meeting is slated for March 13th. The reading selection is The Book of Joy; Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. Contact Kathy Nielsen, knielsen@redshift.com, for more information.

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Parish Prayer List

I imagine everyone, at some point in time, has added a name to the prayer list sitting at the entrance to the church each Sunday. But what happens with that list after you add your petition or thanksgiving? Early each week an office volunteer retrieves the list from the church, copies it and sends it to the prayer team, which right now is composed of only about five people. These five people pray for your intentions every day. This is not an onerous task. Perhaps it is something you would be willing to do. If so, please call the office, 831-624-3883, on a week day before noon and ask to be added to the list of pray-ers. You will then receive a copy of the prayer list each week. And…if you are willing to pick it up during the week or on Sunday, you can save the church 50 cents a week. By the way, our petitions heavily outweigh our thanksgivings. Maybe we could all give some thought to that omission. –Claudia Ward

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Front Office Opportunity on Monday Mornings

If you like greeting people in person or on the phone, or helping people by providing food bags, or supporting the administration of our church, then we may have a place for you in the parish front office on Monday mornings. Contact Ray Krise, Parish Administrative Coordinator at 624-3883, or Ed Fincke, Senior Warden at 392-6301.

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The Current Calendar Schedule of Events

Morning Prayer in the Chapel, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. During Lent, morning prayer will also be held on Saturday mornings – 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

Tuesday, March 13th – Book Club meeting in the Library, 6 p.m.

Wednesday, March 14th – Bible Study Group – in the Library 10:30 a.m. until noon. The Lenten study is the Book of Job.

Wednesday, March 14th and Wednesday evenings through Lent – The Art and Science of Grateful Living. A practice led by Rev. Amber. 6:00 p.m. in Seccombe Hall with soup supper.

Thursday, March 15th – The Centering Prayer Group – in the Chapel at 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday, March 28th – Bible Study Group – in the Library 10:30 a.m. until noon.

Monday, April 9th – I-HELP at All Saints’

And Don’t Forget

Interested in Inter-Faith Conversation, Fun, and Outreach?Consider Joining JCM United! A new organization on the Monterey Peninsula, called JCM United is bringing together Jews, Christians, and Muslims in order to build bridges of understanding and strengthen our community. At times we will unite to help the less fortunate

Our Memorial Garden Project has been completed. Consider buying a brick to commemorate a loved one in your family or reserve one for yourself. This is a beautiful meditative spot. Jana Gill is the contact if you have questions.

Help feed our community’s hunger by filling one of the red bags located under the table at the back of the church. Items that are needed most are printed on the bags. No glass items please. Many thanks from your Outreach Commission who will include your contributions in our daily food bags. Please return bags to the back of the church.

Announcement deadline – To be included in next Sunday’s bulletin, your announcement must be submitted by 11 a.m. on the preceding Wednesday. Most special parish events are included in the announcements for three weeks before they occur. Contact Ray Krise in the office at 831-624-3883.